Eviction

For many renters living in southeast Greensboro, N.C., changing addresses is an all-too-familiar endeavor. The mostly low-income residents in these communities of concentrated poverty often can’t afford to pay the monthly rent and are ultimately evicted. “We have economic and racial segregation, a concentration of social issues with bad outcomes, and families that are stretched to the limit who routinely are finding themselves in eviction court,” says Stephen Sills, who directs the Center for Housing and Community Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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What happens when one’s home is taken away? That’s a question that far too many people have had to ask themselves when faced with eviction, and one that looms in “Evicted,” a new exhibition at Washington, D.C.’s National Building Museum.

As the price of housing in California spirals out of reach, more than half of Los Angeles County residents fear being priced out of living in the region, and younger residents are even more apprehensive.

Fifty-five percent of LA County residents said they, a close friend or family member have considered moving from their neighborhood in the last few years due to rising housing costs, according to the 2018 Quality of Life Index.

Family photos, Bible verse decals and wedding mementos adorn Jimmy Mejia and Patty Garrido's living room walls in South Los Angeles. Despite their efforts, the decorations can't mask the unpatched holes in the ceiling and the roaches that crawl around their kitchen. In one corner, there's a hole where the drywall caved in after a recent storm.

"The heater doesn't work, so in the winter it's really hard; it gets really cold here," Mejia said.

In 2016, 3,255 renters in the city of Los Angeles were evicted from their homes, according to data released last week by the Eviction Lab, a research group at Princeton University.

For a city of 4 million, that rate is fairly low. As the Eviction Lab data illustrates, the United States is in the midst of an eviction crisis of tremendous scale. Nationwide, nearly 1 million renters were forced to find new housing in 2016.

Several residents at a Fort Worth apartment complex say they are being evicted through no fault of their own.

According to tenants and a Fort Worth police report, someone broke into the overnight deposit box at Chisholm Trail Townhomes and stole the checks and money orders. Now, residents say even though the families have lost their rent money, the complex is asking them to pay again.

Fidela Villasano’s entire world was upending.

In August, her landlord sold the tiny clapboard bungalow where she had lived for 55 years, and the new owner notified her that he wanted her out in the next few months.

Like so many in Lincoln Heights, this tiny, rawboned 89-year-old woman had lived through a time of gang violence, high crime and police oppression. She never expected to be forced out by real estate values.

But, with just $900 a month from Social Security, where in Lincoln Heights could she afford to live? Where in Los Angeles?

Nearly one dozen tenants in South Los Angeles are still facing sudden homelessness after participating in a mediation with the City of Los Angeles and the landlord trying to evict them.